Alarm clock



P. LUX

ALARM CLOCK Dec. 1, 1936.

Filed Nov. 7, 1955 INVENTOR Paul Lux ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 1, 1936 UNITED STATES ALARM CLOCK Paul Lux, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to The Lux Clock Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application November 7, 1935, Serial No. 48,706

Claims.

This invention relates to clocks, and more particularly to an alarm clock having an improved setting mechanism.

One object of this invention is to provide an 5 alarm clock of the above nature in which the alarm shut-off device will be automatically disconnected by the operation of winding the alarm spring, thus making it impossible for the user to forget to set the alarm when the clock is wound.

A further object is to provide an alarm clock of the above nature provided with a manual alarm shut-01f device which may be operated either prior to or after the sounding of the alarm.

A further object is to provide an alarm clock of the above nature which is equipped with an auxiliary shut-off lever having a cam adapted to frictionally interlock with a cam on the alarm sounding lever, and in which said sounding lever is automatically unlocked from the auxiliary lever by the operation of winding up the alarm spring.

A further object is to provide an alarm clock of the above nature which will be simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to 5 assemble and manipulate, compact, ornamental in appearance, and very efficient and durable in use.

With these and other objects in view, there have been illustrated on the accompanying drawing two forms in which the invention may be conveniently embodied in practice.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 represents a rear elevation of an alarm clock casing equipped with the present invention, and showing the alarm shut-off lever in locked position.

Fig. 2 is a right-hand end view of the same, showing a portion of the casing in vertical section.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the alarm mechanism with the casing removed.

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the alarm shutoff mechanism, showing the appearance of the auxiliary shut-off lever in unlocked or set position.

Fig. 5 is a side View of a modified form of auxiliary shut-off lever and a modified knob plunger loosely connected thereto.

Referring now to the drawing in which like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views, the numeral l0 indicates a casing within which is mounted a clock movement frame H for containing the usual movement, not shown, and an alarm operating mechanism positioned in the upper part of said frame, as will be later described. The frame ll comprises a pair of front and rear spaced plates I2 and I3 respectively, attached together by horizontal pillars l4 located at the four corners thereof. A shallow cupped bell or gong i5 is positioned between the front of the frame ll and the adjacent dial face of the clock casing.

The alarm operating mechanism consists of a horizontal spindle Hi rotatably journaled in a pair of upright lugs ll integral with the upper edges of the plates l2 and I3. The rear end of the winding spindle l6 projects beyond the rear plate l3 and is supplied with a detachable winding key l8 for winding up a coiled alarm spring l9 secured to the spindle IS. The spring it! is adapted to drive a gear train including a main gear 20, a pinion a, and an escapement wheel 2 i.

In order to release the alarm sounding mechanism at a predetermined time, provision is made of the usual cup-shaped cam 22 slidably and rotatably mounted upon the forward end of an alarm setting arbor 23. The cam 22 is secured to a relatively large gear 22a. which is intermeshed with the gear train 24 forming a part of the time indicating mechanism of the clock. The cam 22 has a V-shaped notch 25 which cooperates with a detent lug 26 carried by the setting arbor 23, and said cam 22 is normally pressed forwardly at all times against the detent lug 26 by means of a leaf spring 21, one end of which is anchored securely to the front plate l2.

The free end of the spring 21 is formed with an inturned lug 29 which normally engages a depending arm 30 on a striking lever 3i which is pivoted by trunnions 3la between the front and rear plates [2 and is. The lug 29 serves to prevent the striking lever from being oscillated until the predetermined alarm time arrives. The spring 2'! and the lug 29 will then be snapped forwardly at the instant that the cam notch 25 comes into alinement with the detent lug 26. The lug 29 will thus be moved out of contact with the arm 30 of the striking lever 3|, which is provided with an angular offset arm 32 carrying on its outer lower end a bell striking hammer head 32a.

The vibration of the hammer head against the bell I5 is actuated in the well known manner through the escapement wheel 2|, previously mentioned, under the control of a pair of detent teeth 33 carried by the striking lever 3!. The rear end of the shaft 23 is provided with a knurled knob 34 for manually setting the alarm with reference to a dial, not shown.

In order to lock the alarm sounding lever,

provision is made of an auxiliary shut-off lever 35 fulerumed upon the winding spindle l6 and normally urged in a counter-clockwise direction by means of a light wire spring 36 having one end securely anchored to the outer portion of the lever 35, and provided at its inner free end with an out-turned section 31 which rests upon the upper edge of the rear plate |3. The anchored end of the spring is looped back at 38 and is embraced by a lug 39 sheared integrally out of the stock of the lever 35. The left end of the lever 35, as viewed in Figs. 1, 3 and 4, is integrally formed with a rearwardly projecting lug 35a which is adapted to abut the upper edge of the rear plate I 3 to limit the counter-clockwise rotation of said lever 35 under the influence of the spring 36.

The auxiliary shut-off lever 35 is provided at its upper right end with an integral offset horizontal ledge or plate 40 which is adapted to be engaged by the headed lower end 4| of a vertical plunger rod 42 passing up through an ornamental escutcheon plate 43 mounted on top of the clock casing ill. A large knob 44 is rigidly attached to the upper end of the plunger rod 42, and is adapted to be manually depressed to shut ofi the alarm.

The shut-off lever 35 is provided at a point opposite from the ledge 40, as viewed in Fig. 3, with a convex cam lug 45 which is adapted to be engaged over a similar convex cam lug 46 integral with the bell-sounding lever 3| for locking the latter against vibration.

Operation In the operation of the alarm mechanism, assuming that the alarm spring has been wound up, and that the auxiliary shut-off lever 35 is in the on position as shown in Fig. 4, the alarm will be sounded when the detent lug 26 comes into alinement with the notch 25 of the cup cam 22. The cam 22 will at this time snap forwardly under the influence of its spring 21, releasing the inturned detent lug 29 from the depending arm 3|] of the striking lever 3|. The hammer arm 32 and head 32a will then be set into rapid vibration due to the step-by-step rotation of the escapement wheel 2|.

The striking of the hammer head 32a against the bell I5 will continue until the spring I9 has unwound, unless the alarm is previously shut off by the manual depression of the knob 44. The depression of the knob 44 causes the auxiliary shut-off lever 35 to pivot about its axis in a clockwise direction to the off position shown in Fig. 1 until the cam lug 45 snaps down over the cam lug 45 of the striking lever into interlocking engagement therewith.

When the lever 35 is in the off position, the alarm mechanism will be locked against operation. The shut-off lever 35, however, is adapted to be automatically restored to the on position, as shown in Fig. 4, to unlock the bell-sounding mechanism whenever the operator turns the key l8 for the purpose of winding the alarm spring H3. The force exerted by the key [8 acting through the train of gears tends to move the escapement wheel 2| in a clockwise direction allowing the cam lug 46 to move to the left away from the cam lug 45. The latter will immediately rise under the influence of the spring 36 and set the alarm mechanism in on position.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 5, the horizontal ledge 41 of the auxiliary shut-off lever 48 is provided at its end with an open slot 49 for slidably receiving the lower neck portion 50 of a modified operating plunger 5|. The plunger 5|, instead of having a single head as in the first form, has a pair of spaced opposed convex heads 52 and 53 adapted to engage on opposite sides of the horizontal ledge 41. By means of this construction, not only may the auxiliary lever 48 be moved to locked position by the manual depression of the knob plunger 5|, but said lever may be unlocked by pulling said knob upwardly to set the alarm, whenever desired.

One advantage of the present invention is that the knob 44 may be depressed to lock the alarm at any time either before or after the alarm has started to sound.

While there have been disclosed in this specification two forms in which the invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that these forms are shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited to the specific disclosures but may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit. In short, the invention includes all the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what is claimed as new, and for which it is desired to secure Letters Patent, is:

1. In an alarm clock, a casing, a frame in said casing, an alarm driving spring carried by said frame, vibratory alarm sounding means driven by said spring, an escapement for controlling said vibratory means, a spring-pressed auxiliary lever for holding said sounding means from vibrating, cooperating cam means on said lever and. vibratory means for detachable interlocking engagement, and manually operated means projecting through said casing for engaging said lever for forcing said cam means into interlocking engagement to shut off the alarm, the force of the spring pressing on said auxiliary lever being insuflicient to overcome the engagement of said cams, but causing said auxiliary lever to move upwardly into unlocked position when said cams are disengaged by the winding of said spring.

2. In an alarm clock, a casing, a movement frame in said casing, an alarm driving coiled spring carried by said frame, a vibratory alarm sounding leverpivoted in said frame, means driven by said spring for vibrating said lever, an auxiliary alarm shut-off spring-pressed lever pivoted in said frame, interlocking cam means on said vibratory lever and said auxiliary shut-off lever for detachably holding said vibratory lever out of action, and means responsive to the winding of said spring for disengaging said cam means to permit the sounding of the alarm, the force of the spring pressing on said auxiliary lever being insuflicient to overcome the engagement of said cams, but causing said auxiliary lever to move upwardly into unlocked position when said cams are disengaged by the winding of said spring.

3. In an alarm clock, a casing, a movement frame in said casing, an alarm driving coiled spring carried by said frame, a vibratory alarm sounding lever pivoted in said frame, means driven by said spring for vibrating said lever, an auxiliary shut-01f lever pivoted in said frame on the axis of said spring, interlocking cam means on said vibratory lever and said auxiliary shutoff lever for detachably holding said vibratory lever out of action, and means responsive to the winding of said spring for disengaging said cam means to permit the sounding of the alarm.

4. In an alarm clock, a movement frame, and alarm spring, a gear train connected with said spring, an alarm sounding lever connected with said gear train, a manually operated auxiliary alarm shut-off lever, said levers having cooperating convex cam arms for holding said alarm sounding lever out of operation when said auxiliary lever cam is forced down over the sounding lever cam.

5. In an alarm clock, a movement frame, an alarm spring, a gear train connected with said spring, an alarm sounding lever connected with said gear train, a manually operated auxiliary spring-pressed alarm shut-01f lever, said levers having cooperating convex cam arms for holding said alarm sounding lever out of operation when said auxiliary lever cam is forced down over the sounding lever cam, the force of the spring pressing on said auxiliary lever being insufficient to overcome the engagement of said cams, but causing said auxiliary lever to move upwardly into unlocked position when said cams are disengaged by the Winding of said spring.

PAUL LUX. 

